SYDNEY, Australia is more than 17,000 kilometres from the Curragh of Kildare, but in terms of horse welfare, it might as well be our next door neighbour. The truth is that any incidence of horse welfare violation or neglect, thanks to the sometimes regrettable power of social media, can reverberate anywhere that horses and horsemen and women are gathered.

The fact that welfare was central to discussions at the recent International Federation of Horseracing Authorities conference in Paris indicates how seriously such bodies see the need for proper programmes to be in place, and how worrying they see the moves being made in certain jurisdictions to limit or ban racing on grounds of welfare.